Education - Marxism

Question 1

What are the purposes of education as an ISA?

Louis Althusser

Answer 1

• Reproducing class inequality
• Legitimises inequality by making pupils accept a hierachy where they are told what to do

Question 2

What do Bowles and Gintis see education as?

Answer 2

A primary source for the capitalist classes to acquire future workers by teaching pupils to follow orders

Question 3

What was Bowels and Gintis’ research?

Answer 3

• Investigated 237 New York high school students
• Found that behaviours + attitudes were punished differently
• Creative and independent students got lower grades

Question 4

What was Bowels and Gintis’ conclusion?

Answer 4

Schools produce obedient individuals that are less likely to challenge the capitalist system

Question 5

What is the correspondence principle?

Answer 5

How school reflects the workplace in a capitalist society
(The hierarchy within school vs within the workplace, ect..)

Question 6

What is the hidden curriculum?

Answer 6

The behaviours that reinforced and instilled into pupils on a daily basis through social interactions and expectations
(Being on time, respecting teachers, completing all work)

Question 7

What is Bowles and Gintis’ ‘Myth of Meritocracy’?

Answer 7

• They believe that individuals are made to believe that their failure is their fault rather than a fault of the system
• It prevents people from feeling that inequality is unfair and prevents rebellion
• Poor people believe that their stupidity is the cause of their misfortune
• It protects capitalism
• Also believe in the hidden curriculum

Question 8

Paul Willis’ Learning to Labour study

Answer 8

• Studied 12 working class boys
• They aimed to disrupt classes and saw intellectual learning as effeminate and inferior
• Ended up in unskilled manual labour, lowly paid
• They don’t expect satisfaction from work